The Eight-Pointed Star: A Practice for Today’s World

 

We live in a world of polarities, multiplicities, perspectives, beliefs, differing views and experiences, a world still caught in ancient patterns of domination, control, aggression, oppression and war. Simultaneously we live in a world of unbelievable beauty, every day, in the sunrise and sunset, a world of  wonder, of music, dance, art, color, a world where love and joy go hand in hand with hatred and sorrow, a world full of laughter, a world full of tears. We live also in worlds we do not know, not consciously, but accessed by ritual and meditation, awakenings of vision and imagination, heart and soul, love and awareness, and the presence of Spirit, or the Divine, or whatever we choose to call this Presence.  As humans, we are selfish and selfless, we live and die, we are healthy and sick, rich and poor, young and old. We help others, and we hurt others. We know hope and fear, loss and gain, peace and war, suffering and bliss, an endless list of seeming opposites.

What is the constant in these waves of opposites? Awareness. Awareness of the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, the pain, the joy, etc. The awareness in us that thinks, feels, perceives, tastes, smells, hears, sees, reacts,  the awareness in us that has the capacity to choose its response. The awareness that can hold in its spaciousness the polarities that we encounter continuously in our life as human beings aware of ourselves.

In SourcePoint we work with pattern to shift pattern. We work with fundamental energy patterns of Order, Balance, Harmony and Flow to bring transformation to ancient and recurring patterns of disorder, imbalance, disharmony and rigidity. We choose to bring our awareness over and over to the information of health, contained in the specific energy field we call the Blueprint of Health for the human being, whether we are working with another person or ourselves. As we do this, we experience a shift in perspective, a different view of the relationship of health and ill-health.

Perhaps health and ill-health are not polarities. If we live attuned to the fundamental Order, Balance, Harmony and Flow of life, we experience the flow, the exchange, the continuous communication that goes on between the energies, the patterns, of health and ill-health, order and disorder, harmony and disharmony, rigidity and flow. We recognize that it’s not a battle we are engaged in, health against ill-health. If we’re grounded in health, we can respond effectively to the storms and disruptions of ill-health.

And what happens if we extend that refocused view to the world around us?

 Many, very many, years ago, in Sri Lanka, on pilgrimage with my husband and son, I was introduced to the word “Upekkha” in Pali. It describes a particular state of consciousness, and it means “equanimity.”  I refer to this word often. I was told it meant literally “to see as if from above.”

Think about it, you’re looking down from an airplane making its descent through the clouds, and what do you see? Patterns of fields and forest, river and sea, mountains and deserts. It’s a wide, spacious view, and you know down below millions of lives are happening, intricate stories are unfolding, but you’re seeing, focusing on,  the earth, the ground, the context, for the stories.

This is not dissociation, a denial of the reality of one’s life on that earth. It’s a moment of wider view, a spacious shift in perspective on one’s life, on human life itself. We humans tend to be somewhat anthropomorphic in our view of life. It’s good to take time to remember we are not the center of the universe, that we live in a universe of forces and energies beyond our control. We can experience a wider view that encompasses millennia. We can experience a wider view that allows us to respond effectively – and healthily-  to the polarization we experience in ourselves and the outer world.

In SourcePoint Therapy we have many practices we can do to shift consciousness to a wider view, to the Blueprint of Health for the human being and how it functions.

One specific one is the practice of the Eight-Pointed Star, a symbol of, a placeholder for, the Blueprint of Health. Remember, symbols are not just pictures of something, they contain the energy of their source. The image of the Eight-Pointed Star holds, brings present, and radiates the energy, information and light of the Blueprint.

Connecting with it through visualization, bringing our awareness to this symbol, can shift our view of any situation, with a client in a SourcePoint session, with a problem we’re experiencing, with emotions and reactions, with decisions and doubts, with distress about the state of the world.  I’m not saying it will solve the problem or banish an emotion, or make change in the world.  I’m saying it can shift your perspective. It can open new ways of relating to whatever issue you’re dealing with.

The eight-pointed star appears throughout human history in many mythologies and traditions. It’s the morning and evening star of Venus. It’s a symbol of The Goddess, particularly Inanna and Ishtar. The Buddha’s awakening happened in its presence. It’s associated with Jesus also. It appears in indigenous traditions throughout the world. This is not surprising because to understand its power, we have only to stand outside at night under a starry sky and connect with the heavens. The vastness of the night sky puts our lives in perspective, and it puts this particular moment in time in perspective.

The eight-pointed star also happens to be the Compass Rose. And meditating with it can bring a sense of focus, of guidance, beyond rational understanding. A sense of deep intention that cannot be put into words.  A message that we are a point in a vast network of being that we always in communication with, receiving guidance from, being supported by. And this can help us navigate the difficult waters of this life on this planet. It can reflect to us the beauty of the universe in which we dwell and illuminate our path. It can bring greater equanimity, a grounding in the Source of being.

It can help resolve polarities. It’s composed of straight lines but if you join those lines, you have a circle.  And the circle is the space, the place in consciousness, where polarities can communicate and come to resolution or at least greater understanding. Held in spacious awareness, we can begin to work with the polarities we encounter in the world and in ourselves from a different perspective.

We call the eight-pointed star the point of emergence. What is emerging right now, in this world, in you, in the hearts and minds of human beings? That’s not a question to be immediately answered, only explored…

You can visualize this star in the sky above, or right in front of you, or feel it in your heart, or however it works for you to connect with it.

This is only one of many practices in many traditions that can shift perspective. The protocols of SourcePoint Therapy are all about opening doors into different dimensions of consciousness and energy, expanding our experience of this universe we dwell in. Exploring the universal energy, it’s good to have structures and protocols and practices that are grounded in Order, Balance, Harmony and Flow and that can help set intention, provide guardianship and clarify your experience,

This is one gateway among many.

May all beings be happy, peaceful and free of suffering.